Britons turn to junk food after financial crisis - study

Britons hurt by lower incomes and rising food prices after the financial crisis have cut back on fruit and vegetables and turned instead to fatty, sugary, processed food, an academic study showed on Monday. The net effect has been that Britons are spending 8.5 percent less in real terms on food purchased at home than before the recession - with the trend even greater for pensioners and families with young children. The research is likely to be politically sensitive at a time when Britain's Conservative-led government is under pressure from the Labour Party, over declining standards of living and sharply rising demand at food banks which hand out free food to the poorest Britons. People have economised by buying less food, measured in number of calories, but also on its quality, picking products that are less nutritious and higher in saturated fat and sugar.

via Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/britons-turn-junk-food-financial-crisis-study-000532666--business.html